On Wednesday, we watched as Maya rights activist Cristina Coc broke down under the strain of emotions surrounding the legal battle for customary land tenure by the Maya of southern Belize. Coc was responding specifically to the government’s defence strategy, as presented by senior counsel Lois Young, which categorized Maya in Belize as “recent immigrants...trying to get what they couldn’t get from Guatemala.” It’s a position has generated controversy but after spending the last two and a half days on her feet presenting the government’s case, this afternoon young maintained that the government’s intention is not to be insulting...GOB is simply defending itself to the fullest.
Lois Young, Attorney for GOB
“I didn’t see Miss Coc’s television interview, I heard about it, but my position is they brought the government to court. The government didn’t bring them to court and my duty is to put my client’s case as fully as possible. I cannot dodge around the government’s position. The government’s position has been the same position since the year 2001. This is the same points that the government argued in front of the, what commission was it, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in 2001. So it is nothing new to them. I think that maybe what upset Miss Cristina Coc, perhaps cause I didn’t see it, is the fact that when you read out the affidavit evidence of Dr. Jaime Awe, he is so clear and unequivocal that these claimants are not the descendants of indigenous Mayas and you know what, not to be the indigenous people is not a bad thing. There is nothing terrible about that. We are all immigrants, we all came here on some boat or the other. It is not a bad thing.”
Janelle Chanona,
At the end of the day you in your eyes doesn’t make them less Belizean?
Lois Young,
“It doesn’t make them less Belizeans. You know what, I think her reaction from what I heard, again I didn’t see, just serves to underscore what I think the position is of these claimants, that perhaps they think they are some chosen people or something more special than the rest of us but we’re all Belizeans together and I think that is what a lot of people feel, that we are all entitled to the same treatment. No doubt Toledo was neglected, that is a fact of life but this is a court of law and there are certain requirements for you to prove that you have customary land title. It is no reflection on you if you don’t rise to the standard and you can’t prove it if that were to be the case.”
Today, attorney Rodwell Williams, who represents interested party Francis Johnson, made his submissions in the case. The trial has been adjourned until tomorrow, Saturday, at ten in the morning when counsel for the Maya, Antoinette Moore, will make her final summation to the Chief Justice.
